Frontier Communications has completed what it says is the first trial of Nokia’s 25G PON broadband technology in the United States. The trial was successful, the carrier said, noting that the company will continue trials and plans commercial deployments during the second half of next year.
The 25G PON (passive optical network) standard is designed to offer 25 Gbps of bandwidth, which is 2.5 times the amount offered by XGS-PON, the reigning bandwidth champ. The Nokia equipment can be added to the Frontier installed base of fiber and can operate alongside GPON and XGS-PON because those technologies use different wavelengths, Frontier explains in a press release.
“Successfully completing the first U.S. trial of the country’s fastest fiber broadband is a critical step in offering a competitive advantage for Frontier and our customers,” Veronica Bloodworth, Frontier’s Chief Network Officer, said in the release. “We already have one of the largest XGS-PON networks in the country and this technology will ensure our network will continue to offer the fastest, most technologically advanced broadband service available.”
There is a race to 25G PON development and deployment. Indeed, last week competitive broadband service provider Hotwire Communications said it deployed 25G PON equipment – and claimed to be the first company in the U.S. to do so. Though the technology is designed to ultimately offer symmetrical 25 Gbps service, slower symmetrical and asymmetrical speeds are possible. The Hotwire press release cites symmetrical “10 Gigabits-per-second or higher” speeds, which implies that the company may not immediately offer the full data rates.
An earlier trial announcement also included Nokia. Last month, Bell Canada said that it successfully tested the Nokia technology at Bell’s Advanced Technology Lab in Montreal.
Writing in Telecompetitor’s Industry Insight Series, Don Reckles, the Steering Committee Chair of the 25GS-PON Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) pointed to clear use cases that he sees for the technology and noted that the technology is cost-effective, is easily added to existing networks and is available now.
Funny, you’d think Verizon or AT&T would be pressing forward first to offer 10gigabits to customers.. frontier has nothing to lose upgrading DSL lines to fiber… after bankrupting itself from Verizon’s debt nowhere to go but up..